SLATE -- The effort is run by Aaron Belkin, a political scientist from San Francisco State University, who has spent the last two decades tracking and influencing public opinion around “don’t ask don’t tell” and the ban on transgender service members.

“Democracy cannot work when a major political party steals courts, and that’s just what Republicans have done. The Republicans stole the courts and Democrats must ‘un-steal’ them,” Belkin says. “Yes, a robust national conversation about various reform options is needed. And yes, there is a strong case to be made for some of the options. But un-stealing the courts is the only viable path to nullifying and penalizing Republican misconduct. Expansion, in other words, is the only option that imposes a proportionate political penalty for theft.”